Staryi Krym [Старий Крим; Staryj Krym] in Crimean Tatar: Eski Qırım. See Google Map; see EU map: VIII-16. A city (2014 pop 9,512; 2021 pop 10,470) 24 km west of Teodosiia, formerly in the raion of Kirovske (Crimea), but since the Ukrainian government 2020 raion consolidation, in the raion of Teodosiia, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

History. Artefacts dating back to the last few centuries BC have been found at the site of an ancient settlement called Kariia (ancient Greek inscription dated 222 AD, linked to the Bosporan Kingdom). In the 6th century it was known as Surkhat (a Khazar fort by 7th century), by 13th through 15th centuries, Solkhat. In the mid-13th century, the city was inhabited by Alans, Kipchaks and the Rus’. Under the rule of the Golden Horde (mid-13th to mid-15th centuries) it was called Krym or Kerym and was the residence of the khan’s viceregent. At the same time, as a prospering western anchor point on the caravan Silk Road, the Armenian and Genoese merchants who came to live here in their Christian quarter and conveyed the goods to nearby Genoese-controlled Caffa continued to call it Solkhat until their expulsion by Ottoman Turks with the taking of Caffa in 1475. When the capital of the Crimean Khanate was moved to Kyrk-Yer and then to Bakhchysarai at the turn of the 15th–16th centuries, Krym declined and became known as Eski Krym (Old Crimea).

Annexed with the rest of the Crimea by Russia in 1783, the settlement lost population to emigration, yet for control purposes was named Levkopol (after the ancient Greek name of Leukopolis [White City]) and raised to city status in 1784 to serve as the center of Levkopol county. But the new name never gained popularity; by 1787 its name of Staryi Krym (in Crimean Tatar, Eski Krym) was reinstated, its county annulled, and it was included in the Teodosiia county of Tavriia oblast (since 1802 Tavriia gubernia). This depopulated settlement in 1805 with 114 residents consisting (in percent) of Crimean Tatars (78) and Roma (22), grew by 1863 to 1,085, comprising (in percent) Armenian Christians (43.4), Orthodox Russians and Ukrainians (42.8), Muslim Crimean Tatars (13.1) and Protestant Germans (0.7). By 1897, with the return of the Greeks and the inflow of more Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and German colonists, its population grew to 3,330, comprising (in percent, by mother tongue) Russian (35.0), Greek (24.4), Crimean Tatar (15.0), Armenian (11.9), Ukrainian (5.0), Bulgarian (2.3), German (1.9) and Roma (1.9) residents. In the late 19th century, the inhabitants were mostly employed in gardening, tobacco cultivation and farming, but also worked in small-scale consumer-oriented artisan shops. During the First World War the town housed a sanatorium.

After the First World War, the Russian Civil War, and the establishment of Soviet rule in the Crimea, Staryi Krym served as a raion center (1921–24) and gained city status within the Teodosiia okruha in 1926. Its population was 5,750 in 1921 but famine of 1921–3 reduced it by 41 percent; by 1926 it had 4,740 residents, comprising by ethnicity (in percent) Russians (39.8), Bulgarians (20.7), Greeks (19.0), Crimean Tatars (5.6), Armenians (3.9), Ukrainians (3.7), Jews (2.0) and Germans (1.3). In 1927 a city branch of the Crimean Resort Trust was opened, with services for the infirm provided in 4 reconditioned mansions and hotels.

Staryi Krym regained its function as raion center in 1930 (or 1931, until 1959). Its houses of prayer were closed, artisan workshops combined to larger-scale industrial production and in 1931 the Staryi Krym sanatorium for victims of tuberculosis (10 mansions with 200 beds) was opened. By 1939 the city’s population reached 5,141.

During the Second World War, Germans occupied the city from 2 November 1941 to 13 April 1944. They encountered local resistance and set up and operated the Sicherheitsdienst prison. After the Red Army re-took the Crimea, all Crimean Tatars were deemed traitors and deported during the deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944.

In post-war years the city was rebuilt and its present Staryi Krym sanatorium was built (1946, initially for oil workers’ respite, since 1950 as tuberculosis sanatorium), and expanded since 1951. New manufacturing and support services were added. The city’s population grew from 7,374 (1959) to 8,552 (1970), 8,891 (1979), and 9,208 (1989).

Followed the 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence, some houses of prayer were restored in the city or new ones built. Staryi Krym continued to grow slowly with returning Crimean Tatars and then decline (because of ageing population) and fluctuate at attained level: 10,101 (2001), 9,501 (2009), 9,512 (2014). The ethnic composition of the city’s residents in 2001 was (in percent): Russians (53.8), Crimean Tatars (29.2) and Ukrainians (10.2). Others were under 1 percent each.

Following the Russian invasion and annexation of the Crimea (in February-March 2014), a special census of its population (14 October 2014) registered a slight increase in the city’s total population to 10,752, with a slight decline (since 2001) in the share (in percent) of Russians (49.5), a large decline of Ukrainians (7.0, as some left after Russian invasion), but a large increase in Crimean Tatars (35.7, who continued to settle in Staryi Krym after 2001).

Economy. The town manufactures reinforced-concrete products (with raw material from nearby limestone quarries), footwear, food processing, woodworking, and furniture. The Staryi Krym Winery is outside the town, in next-door village of Iziumivka. The Staryi Krym Sanatorium, on the NW side, beyond the built-up area of town in a forest setting, treats tuberculosis. In 1997, this sanatorium was transferred from the Crimean to the Ukrainian national jurisdiction (the Ministry of Health of Ukraine). The city has a hospital, 2 schools, a library, a commercial strip with its bus terminal, stores and restaurants, a farmers’ market, 2 Orthodox churches (the larger Saint Panteleon and the small Dormition of the Mother of God) and 2 mosques (the restored Uzbek Khan Mosque (on its east side) and the new impressive Zubeir Mosque with 3 minarets (on its west side).

Culture. This city has some historical buildings and ruins. The main architectural monuments are: 1) the Uzbek Khan Mosque (Crimean Tatar: Özbek Han Camisi; Turkish: Özbek Han Camii), the oldest active mosque in the Crimea, built during the reign of Uzbek Khan in 1314, closed and re-purposed during the Soviet period, restored and reopened for worshipers after 1991; adjacent to its southern wall are the ruins of a madrasah, the oldest in the Crimea, built in 1332; 2) the Surb Khach Armenian Monastery (Monastery of the Holy Cross), in wooded hills 1 km south of the city, founded in 1358, nationalized and re-purposed by Soviet authorities (Pioneer Palace, tuberculosis clinic), restored after 1991 and is an active shrine of Orthodox Armenians. Ruins of other historic structures (never restored) include: 1) John the Baptist Church (11–14th centuries); (2) the Beibars Mosque, first mosque built in the Crimea about 1287, funded by Sultan Beibars of Egypt; 3) the Kurshum Jami Mosque (built at the beginning of the 14th century, using lead coated stone, and home of the Dervish takie in the 15–16th centuries); 4) the caravanserai (built at the turn of 13–14th centuries, the oldest one surviving in the Crimea); and 5) the Armenian monastery Surb Stepanos (14–15th centuries, 6 km S of the city and 3 km from Surb Khach). Inaccessible ruins in the old city include the coin-minting mosque, the baths, and a Kenesa.

Museums in the city include: 1) the Crimean Tatar Museum of Cultural-Historical Heritage, which was enriched with a branch of the Crimean Museum of History and Archeology (that provided in 2019 15,000 artefacts of the Golden Horde period); and 2) the Literary-art Museum. There are 2 literary memorial museums: 1) to Aleksandr Grin (Grinevsky, 1880–1932, who spent his last two years in Staryi Krym), established in 1960, since 1996 part of the Koktebel Historical-Cultural Preserve ‘Cimmeria of Maksimiliian Voloshin’; and 2) to Konstantin Paustovsky (1892–1968, a prolific Russian writer, descendant of the Ukrainian Cossack Hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny), established in 2005 at the Literary-art Museum.

City Plan. Located in the Churuk-Su valley and sheltered on both sides by the northeastern foothills of the Crimean Mountains, Staryi Krym forms an irregular rectangular area (5 km long ENE to WSW and 1 to 2.5 km wide). Churuk-Su defines the south side of town with the Starokrymske Reservoir in its SE corner; Highway P23 passes as Chapaiev Street with its commercial strip and bus depot on the north side. Its central, Lenin Street, forks off P23 near the east end of the city, passes through the eastern and central part of the city and rejoins P23 near the west end of it by way of Jubilee Street. Except for its eastern third, which comprised the old, formerly walled city, the town has a regular grid pattern, built up mostly with single-story houses.

Along Lenin Street are located, from east to west, the Red Square (in the center of old city), the Stoianov Brothers Square with the Victory Obelisk, S of it, the City Park, and farther west, the City Library, then beyond Kalinin Street, with the Crimean Tatar Museum (W side), the City Hall with a mini park (where the western wall of the old city once stood). Historic buildings or their ruins are mostly north of Lenin Street, with the exception of the caravanserai, which was near the southern gate to the walled city next to the river.

Industrial sites are at the eastern end and parts of northern periphery. Inter-city bus depot is north of City Hall. Highway P23 leads east to Teodosiia and west to Bilohirsk, with connecting P35 south to Sudak.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
‘Staryi Krym,’ Heohrafichna entsyklopediia Ukraïny, vol 3 (Kyiv 1993)
Zharkykh, M. ‘Staryi Krym,’ Entsyklopediia istoriï Ukraïny, vol 9 (Kyiv 2012)
‘Karta Staroho Krymu, Kryma, z vulytsiamy’ Mapa Ukraïny https://kartaukrainy.com.ua/Staryi-Krym

Ihor Stebelsky

[This article was updated in 2024.]